Gaming | Advance! 2025

It’s long been a goal of mine to attend a wargame convention. After a few false starts (thanks COVID), I’ve finally managed to get myself to one, and all it took was moving to a city that had one. A small one, but it counts. The San Diego Historical Miniature Wargamers Club (SDHMWC) put on the fourth annual Advance!, an ostensibly historical wargaming convention, but there’s room for other types of games of the more fictional bent. This was a one day event in a local community center, but there was still plenty to do. 

Tribal

On account of the new kid, I wasn't able to stay for the entire day, but I was able to use the fact that my birthday was around the corner to be able to sneak away for the morning portion. Despite the small size, there were tons of games to play. Folks really pulled out all the stops with their tables. This is just a few of the tables, I really should have snapped more pictures, but I was too busy gawking at the marvelous minis and bothering people about their games.

Bolt Action

Besides games, there were flea markets to peruse, tables with free goodies, raffles, and pizza. There was even free photo booth for your minis, with some professional looking backdrops and editing. I wanted to participate in the mini painting competition, but the judging wasn't until the afternoon and you had to be present to qualify. Next year. 

Mordheim

One of the highlights was this massive Mordheim table. The more you looked the more little details you could find, which was just a treat. The gamemaster allowed warbands to drop in and out, but I've played plenty of Mordheim and I wanted to try out some other games with the limited amount of time that I had. 

Ancients

The first game I was able to play was Axis & Allies: War at Sea. It's a WWII naval combat game published by WotC (or used to be). Miniatures were purchased in blind bags, so if you've ever purchased these types of minis from WotC, you know the time of soft plastic material that they're made of. The game has been out of print for some time now, but apparently has gained a cult following. Thanks to 3D printing and print-and-play, the community is still alive, or so I'm told by the game host. The first round I played as a lone German submarine hunting Allied merchant convoys while destroyers and PB-9 Catalinas tried to make my life miserable. And they did. I was only able to sink one lonely merchant ship before slipping into the depths, not because I was a submarine, but because I took many, many depth charges to the face. 

Axis & Allies: War at Sea

The next round I observed. Some more rules were introduced, along with weather, and a few different types of destroyer and subs. There was no air support this time around however, and my teammate from the first round was able to give our opponent das boot this time. This was a neat game, much better than I was expecting from a WotC miniature game. I liked that damage is tracked with intact, rattled, crippled, or dead, with each reducing your survivability and combat effectiveness. Initiative is similar to X-Wing, in that the loser moves first, which allows the winner to react with complete information. Combat is done simultaneously, with aircraft going first, then surface weapons, and finally sub-surface. At first I thought I wouldn't like the squares for movement, but it was nice to play a game where you don't have to worry about the accuracy of movement, just generally where you're going and what your future plans are. It removes a finicky and potentially contentious phase of the game that's not necessary here. 

I was able to play one more game, Tribal. This is a skirmish game focused on pre-industrial combat, which is a genre I've not really seen much of, if at all. I played as the raiding Maori versus the defending natives of Papa New Guinea. The neat thing with this game is that it uses a card deck instead of dice, for everything from picking objectives to combat. It's not as simple as the larger card wins either, as red cards are defensive and let you manipulate your or your opponents card value, and black cards cause wounds. The suite and your units abilities can also interact in interesting ways, such as plain +1/-1 bonuses or pushing a unit out of position.

The other major mechanic is the honor system. Honor is the currency used to buy units, and you lose or gain honor through winning combat rounds and securing objectives. If you run out of honor, you immediately lose the game, so there's a balance of having tons of units while having enough of a buffer that you can lose some rounds of combat and stay in the game. You can steal honor from your opponent, or even spend honor to perform Dirty Tricks that give you combat advantages. Whoever has the most honor at the end of the game wins. 

Speaking of which, my Maori handily defeated the defenders and came away with heaps of honor. It helped that the host was gracious in walking me through the best tactics for playing your hand, as there were several times I was about to make a blunder. But who am I kidding, it's because I'm smart. I very much liked this game, way more than I thought I would. The host did a tremendous job of theming literally everything about the game, from the card backs to the turn counters. I even got to keep the lei that I wore during the match. Really shows what a well made set of game aids can do for the overall experience. 

At this point, I stuck around for a quick lottery, where I won some 15 mm tents in a raffle which will eventually go to my American Civil War project. Then I had to head on home. I very much want to return next year, maybe even as a host for Black Seas when I finish my Battle of Lake Erie project. 

-The Space Dinosaur